


Imagine spending New Year’s Eve with Jared

by FrankieDrew



Category: 30 Seconds to Mars
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 13:37:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10877886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrankieDrew/pseuds/FrankieDrew
Summary: Revisiting a special place leads to meet a new acquaintance.





	Imagine spending New Year’s Eve with Jared

I check my bag at least three times before heading to the front door. I give a second look to the interior of the house when I finally decide that everything is in order. I’m able to see other people coming out their houses, starting to walk towards the main beach, where the sand was probably already crowded. One of my neighbors nods at me as a sign of greet, and I do the same before starting to walk to the opposite direction.  
A couple of days ago I discovered a small beach, too covered with rocks to be attractive for tourists. The place always seemed to be desert, and I confirmed my suspicion when I started going there daily, only to find myself alone reading for hours to the sound of the sea. The small beach is only 20 minutes away from my house, and I arrive in time to watch the sunset.  
I lay down a blanket, placing everything that I brought in my bag: beverages, food, a book, and a flashlight. The sun takes its time to set, giving me a perfect sight on this last day of the year. Being here alone, with this perfect view, makes me feel calm, relaxed, like nothing else matters, which is exactly what I needed. Without noticing, I fall asleep, the last sunlight covers me in the last seconds I’m able to appreciate it, before falling in the arms of Morpheus.  
“You shouldn’t be here alone” I hear a voice by my side.  
I move around the blanket, feeling a bit lost in the sudden darkness around me. Next to me, there’s a man, eating one of my apples. My first reaction is to run away, but my body is still too asleep to do so. So I just stand up from the ground and hold my hands high.  
“Who the fuck are you?!”  
“Calm down” The man laughs, “I’m not gonna rob you if that’s what you think”  
And how am I not going to think that? The guy is wearing a hoodie and glasses, I’m not able to see his face and it looks like it is pretty late.  
“I’m Jared” He introduces himself, standing from the sand to offer me his hand, “I saw you here and I thought you may be in need of company”  
“I’m okay” I mutter, ignoring his hand, “Thank you”  
Jared looks at his hand untouched and decides to take his offer back.  
“You are eating my apple”  
“Oh, yeah,” He says like he just realized he was eating my fruit, “I was a bit hungry, I’ve been walking all day. I wanted to ask you, but you were fast asleep and I didn’t want to wake you”  
“What are you doing here?” I ask him, ignoring his whole explanation about my food.  
“I thought this was a public place” Jared laughs again.  
“It is, but people rarely come here”  
“I always come here” He excuses himself, with a wide smile on his face, “You really look scared…”  
And I actually am.  
“It may be because of that” I point at his hoodie and sunglasses, “The sun set a while ago”  
“Oh, yeah, sorry”  
Jared pulls his hoodie off of his head, and the sunglasses disappear in one of his pockets a few seconds after. His eyes shine in the moonlight, and the smile returns to his lips.  
“Better?”  
“Way better”  
“Can I sit now?”  
“Are you sure you are not going to rob me?” I ask dead serious, but Jared laughs at me, probably thinking I’m joking.  
“This is the first time someone tells me I look like a robber” He keeps laughing, “And no, I’m not going to rob you, I promise”  
I nod one time, and he takes this as a sign that he can sit on my blanket again. A few seconds after he sits, I take a bottle of water and another apple from my bag, giving them to him while telling him my name. Jared thanks me with a smile, almost drinking the full bottle of water in a couple of seconds.  
“What are you doing here?” He asks me, putting the bottle aside.  
“It was empty before you appeared, I needed to be alone” I shrug, starting to peel an orange.  
“So you are a loner,” He says as an affirmation, he is not asking.  
“I’m not a loner” My tone of voice makes me sound offended, but I’m not, I’m actually surprised that he considers me a loner just by wanting some peace.  
“There’s a beach full of people waiting for a beautiful set of fireworks only half hour away from here, but you choose this place full of rocks to spend your New Year’s Eve… alone”  
“You are here too… alone” I remark, with a knowing smile.  
“Yeah, but I’m not a loner either” Jared steals half of the orange on my hands, “And this was my secret beach before you arrived with your bag full of fruit”  
I look at him in silence, noticing how his eyes move from his hands to the beach in front of us. Jared looks exactly like the kind of person who enjoys the outdoors, with his skin tanned by the sun, and his appreciative eyes that look at the waves like they are made of crystal.  
But there’s something else in his eyes, behind that shine there’s a secret, something hidden and it is the same image that I get to see every morning in the mirror.  
“We can share it tonight; you look in need of a place like this”  
“Well, thank you” I laugh, pulling out another bottle of water.  
We spend a couple of minutes in silence. Jared keeps his eyes fixated in the waves, and I take my time to enjoy some food. It’s only 9 o’clock. There are still three hours before midnight, before a New Year starts, and I’m sitting at the beach with a man I don’t know.  
Jared is the one who decides to break the ice again. He offers me his kind smile, turning his head to face me.  
“So, what brings you here? Business or pleasure?”  
“Neither” I answer, and Jared’s face turns confused, “I was supposed to meet someone here”  
“Someone important?”  
“Pretty much” I end up shrugging, “What about you? You look like the kind of guy who comes here for pleasure”  
“Always” He whispers, giving me a quick wink, “But not now”  
“Business, then”  
“No, something worse”  
“What can be worse than work?”  
“Probably something similar to the reason why you are here alone, without that ‘someone’ you were supposed to meet”  
Ouch. Low blow, Jared, low blow.  
Jared seems to notice that his comment affected me in ways he can’t even imagine. I know my face does not show that vivid glow due to all those hours on the beach. I know that my eyes look opaque, lifeless and that any smile that crosses my lips looks faked.  
“Something happened to you” He mutters, getting closer to my side.  
“I don’t want to talk about it”  
My eyes immediately go to my hands, they are shaking, and I can’t contain a sigh that escapes my lips.  
“We can talk about what happened to me” He offers, “I guess it’s kind of funny, and you look like you need something to laugh about”  
“Does this story involve you robbing a house? Because that’s not gonna make me laugh”  
“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not a robber?”  
“As many as it take me to believe it” I laugh.  
“Ok, so I didn’t rob a house or anything like that” He starts, getting comfortably closer to me, “I come here every summer, sometimes with my family, others with my friends, but mostly my brother”  
“Older brother?” I adventure.  
“Yeah, how did you know?”  
“Adventurous guess, come on, continue” I encourage him, with a playful punch in the arm.  
“This year I came with my brother and a couple of friends. One of these friends was… this girl, really pretty, like the kind of girl you see on a magazine cover” He tries to explain, but my face shows him that I’m not getting his description, “Tall, tanned, long brown hair, nice clothes…”  
“The kind of girl who doesn’t really exist”  
“Something like that” He shrugs with a smile, “So, I’m really into this girl somehow. I convince her to go with me downtown, I offer her food, clothes that she never accepted. I treat her like a goddamn princess but, for some reason, she only sees me as a friend”  
“Maybe you weren’t being as clear as you thought you were”  
“No, everybody noticed that I wanted to go steady with her, and I was even getting help from my friends, but in the end it was useless” Jared starts laughing, both of his hands go to his face to clear his view and face me again, “Last night, I decided it was finally time to try something risky. We went to a club and got a couple of drinks. We were both a bit drunk and I tried to kiss her”  
“Oh, no…”  
“Oh, yeah, I fucking did. And she fucking pushed me”  
“She definitely wasn’t into you, then?”  
“Not me and no other man, ever”  
“Wait…” I say, finally starting to connect the dots, “She’s…”  
“Yeap, a hundred percent. She even has a girlfriend and never told me!” Jared shakes his head, probably recalling the look on her face last night, “God, I feel so stupid, I should have known”  
“Well, this doesn’t make me laugh, but it only makes me feel sorry for you” I confess, offering my bottle, “You were really into this girl?”  
“Enough to make me avoid her all day” He shrugs, “But things like this happen, there are plenty more fish in the sea or… I don’t know”  
“For a moment, I thought your brother had kissed her or something like that, but I never thought that she was lesbian” I mutter, “Even though, I think that your brother kissing her would have been worse”  
“Maybe, I don’t know. We don’t do that kind of stuff to each other. We really appreciate our family relationship”  
We stay in silence again; Jared drinks what’s left of my bottle and leaves it next to the other empty one.  
“Why do you bring a book to the beach during the night?” He asks me, taking the book from my bag, “It’s too dark to read”  
“That’s why I brought the flashlight” I show him the inside of my bag, where more food awaits and the flashlight rests in the middle.  
“It still doesn’t make sense to me”  
Jared hands me my book back and lies down on the blanket. I look at him, connecting our eyes in a way that feels too personal, but I just can’t look away.  
“I still want to hear your story” He mumbles, using his arms to rest his head, “I already told you my embarrassing night, I think I deserve some distraction too”  
It takes me a few minutes to gain the courage to start speaking. During that whole time, his eyes stick to me, analyzing every inch of my face. A tear comes out of my eyes, and I can’t hold his gaze anymore. This stranger is breaking down my walls, and part of me is happy that I get to share this with someone who isn’t my conscience.  
“I used to come here with my parents when I was little, this is the first time in fifteen years that I visit this beach” I start, feeling his hand intertwined with mine, “Last year my parents decided to get a divorce and that’s when everything started to crumble”  
Even though his hand was holding mine, and his fingers were caressing my palm, I wasn’t sure he was actually listening to my story. I lift my eyes to look at his, and he was more than listening to me. Because what I was seeing in his eyes was more than attention, it was comprehension. He was relying on my story.  
“My mom got sick short after the divorce; I decided to leave my job to take care of her, but cancer started taking the best of her. In just a couple of months, it evolved to terminal and the thought of having to let her go started to hunt me” Jared sat back on the blanket, without letting go of my hand, his eyes penetrating me, “The doctor said she had a month to live. She survived five. But, a few days ago, we had to take her to the hospital”  
“We?” He interrupts me, looking a bit confused.  
“My dad and I” I clarify before continuing, “She only lasted a couple of hours, there wasn’t much left to do”  
“You were going to come here with her?” Jared asks, and as I nod, the tears start making their way through my face.  
“My dad was coming too; we knew we were not going to have another Christmas and New Year together. After what happened, I decided to come anyway, this was our happy place”  
“I’m sure she would have been happy here”  
I nod again, daring myself to look in his eyes. For the first time I notice that they are blue, now filled with tears. I reach my hand to stop a tear falling on his cheek, and a small smile appears on his lips.  
“Sorry, I’ve lost loved ones to cancer too”  
“Everybody has” I shrug, “I got the chance to be with her during her last months, I’m more thankful than sad”  
“That’s good” He smiles again.  
The sound of the people in the crowded beach finally got to us, which was a sign that the end of the year was close. I take my phone to check the time, and I notice that we’ve been in that beach longer than I thought. There’s still 10 minutes left, and Jared notices this too.  
“Come on,” He says, standing on his feet, pulling me from the hand to make me stand too.  
“What? Where are we going?”  
“Just come with me”  
I do as he says and I stand. Right away, he starts pulling me towards the water. I call his name a couple of times, but he keeps walking, without turning around to face me. When we are about to hit the water, he stops.  
“Take off your shoes”  
“Oh, no, we are not getting in the water”  
“Take them off” He repeats, starting to take his own shoes off.  
I watch him take his shoes off, and somehow I end up taking mine too. When he sees I’m ready, he takes my hand again. At first, the water makes me shiver, it is almost midnight and it is freezing. This does not stop him since he keeps pulling me inside the water. Jared finally stops when the water reaches his waist.  
“What are we doing here?” I ask him, my voice clearly trembling.  
“We wait. Close your eyes”  
His hand keeps holding mine; I take a look at this before lifting my eyes to his. He has already closed his eyes, so I do the same. I feel the breeze playing with my hair, making my body tremble. I’m able to feel everything, and for once, I feel calm. I start to remember my mom and everything we went through in the course of the whole year and, somehow, I smile. I did everything I could for her, she was more than thankful, and I was happy because we were together.  
The sudden crack of a firework accompanied the screams of thousands of people. Even though it scared me, I did not open my eyes. Jared pulls me closer to him, and I find myself crying in his arms. I’m not longer sad, I am happy, I am thankful.  
When I decide to open my eyes again, I see him looking at the sky. The fireworks illuminate his face, and I can see a wide smile on his lips.  
“Happy new year” I mutter.  
He lows his face to look me in the eyes and gives me a quick kiss on the lips.  
“For good luck,” He says, before I’m able to do anything more than open my eyes, even more, surprised.  
“It may help you find a girlfriend” I laugh.  
“If it helps, I owe you a couple of apples” He laughs too, “Now, let’s go, I don’t want you to catch a cold.  
We start walking out of the water, our hands still holding each other. Jared helps me put everything in my bag before we start walking towards the road. It is clear that we are not going in the same direction, yet, we do not say a word. Jared looks at me again before I let go of his hand. I smile one last time, starting to walk back to my house. A few feet away, I turn to give a quick look to the man that changed my New Year’s Eve. I see him walking away from me, and it makes me wonder if this is the last time I would be able to see him.


End file.
